An ultralight life?

To play contrarian to the contrarian… :)

Pretty much all land is owned by someone. If someone owns it, someone can sell it, and anyone can buy it. If a piece of land is on the market, I'd much rather have a private individual erect a small abode, even if it means adding utilities, than a logging company buying it up. Or a developer.

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Ben, you have a point. One of the most efficient structures to live in from a carbon footprint point of view is a highrise.

I have thought a lot about a condo but I keep coming back to the idea that if you take your condo association dues and apply it towards a lawn service and maybe bi-annual exterior maintenance, you come out ahead on a small home in a neighborhood. I am open to being persuaded though.

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"To play contrarian to the contrarian… "

It's called the apologist . :)

I live in a private community – with a HOA. But since we live in the red corner of our county, out in the foothills….our HOA rules are pretty lax. No broken down cars and you are required to mow grass if you have it – but most everything is individual. You can paint your house what you want. You can can pave your front yard. No one cares I have a bajillion berry plants in my backyard – well outside of being jealous when I am picking them ;-) And since our community was built up over many years few of the houses match. One reson I love being here. And we have a private lake 1/2 a block away to fish in……

Sure there are a few trashy houses due to the lax rules but most everyone has a neat concept of landscaping – lots of gardeners here! Our community has 9 miles of private roads so it gives an idea just how big it is……..

Great conversation. My dream was always mortgage freedom and a piece of land. We built a rustic cottage in far northern NH on 5 acres. Very rugged, composting toilet, hauling drinking water, lived in our tipi while drying it in. Never quite finished it all but it is bought and paid for. Some of the best years of my life. Then we moved back to VT for jobs and civilzation. We wanted to stay and start a family. We were not interested in living in the tipi with a baby. We wanted some amenities. So we found a small newer house that needed lots of work on ten acres. Green mountain views, woods with a small river, and about seven acres of perfect farmland. We spent a year and half remodeling the house and starting gardens. Now we have a modest mortgage. Not ideal but worth it. Now we are trying to sell the NH camp so we can build an addition and replenish emergency money. We kind of came full circle and have a mortgage now. My wilderness program ten minutes away is shutting it's doors and I will probably have to drive 35 minutes to town for work, even if I get the adventure therapy job I am interviewing for I will still be out a large percentage of my salary. Luckily living simply with a cheap mortgage and no car payments means we will still be able to keep the roof over our head and our bellies full. As an aside thanks to our wonderful little state no matter what happens reasonable health care is always available for the whole family especially children. Even with a decent paying job with benefits we pay only $15 a month for our baby Maya's healthcare with no co payments for anything, saving almost 200 a month from my work health insurance. All VT families making less than 60K are eligible with a slightly sliding scale.

Home ownership can be frustrating or rewarding depending on how you do it. Since my chosen career is not high paying and we decided we wanted my wife to raise our child for a few years we are usually on a tight budget (luckily backpacking is cheap) which means we spend a lot of time at home. It is very much a lifestyle, I like working on the house and the sweat equity we put into it is like a second job. Wood heat is cheap, warm, and provides good excercise. We love connecting with the land and living in a beautiful place. We garden and would like to expand to really ramp up food production probably even adding animals in the coming years. We do lots of running and biking on the dirt roads and swimming and paddling are moments away. Of course one of the luxuries we splurge on is a good internet connection, Netflix and virtual backpacking help maintain the sanity in a small house during the winter (especially this one with no snow). This life is far from perfect, we haven't travelled much lately, we have built up a little short term debt while on one salary, gear purchases are few and far between, no backcountry snow means no skiing as I can't afford a pass,etc. But life is simple and rewarding and we are relatively quite happy.

That sounds exactly like the life we are aspiring to live, complete with gardens and lifestock (but minus the mortgage). Thanks for posting.

I agree with Ike; you have a great thing going Gerry.
And yes, gardens are great! Not the lawn and generic suburban garden that you pay someone else to mow and blow, but gardens as living spaces .

I definately can't complain. Like I said it is not perfect but if I start to focus on what we don't have it is easy to get centered and be thankful for what we do. Ike, it sounds like you have a great plan and based on your goals we could be neighbors some day.